Crystal Dynamics Explains Why Tomb Raider Isn't Coming To Wii U

The Tomb Raider series is receiving a reboot in March when the aptly named Tomb Raider is released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. With the Wii U receiving plenty of ports since its release it was only natural for many to hope the latest Lara Croft game would be making an appearance as well.

However with the game’s release so close and with no news being revealed by the developer, Crystal Dynamics, or the publisher, Square Enix, it seems like it almost definitely won’t be coming to Wii U.

I’m always a fan of the Nintendo systems, in particular they really push interface design, and from a game design perspective it’s fun to play with new interfaces. Having said that it’s something that I think we would want to tailor the experience to if we were going to do it.

Hughes went on to speak about how the development team tailor made the game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC and, because Wii U is offering something so unique, it would require more than just a basic port.

All three of those are really trying to deliver roughly the same experience but delivered best on each platform, and I think something like the Wii U often asks you to do something unique based on a unique interface. That’s something as a gamer I love but it’s something you don’t want to do half-heartedly as a developer.

Australian developer Straight Right said last year that it was working on “another big franchise” that would be coming to Wii U alongside other consoles in 2013. We think it’s safe to say it isn’t Tomb Raider.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you have liked to have seen Tomb Raider make it to the Wii U? Let us know in the comments below.

Why do developers seem to think they must use the gamepad? There's a pro controller people! And just make the game transferable to that screen and I'm happy...unless something has changed I don't think a Tomb Raider game needs an extra interface. Do like ACIII and put the map/hud on it...problem solved!

"and I think something like the Wii U often asks you to do something unique based on a unique interface"

Yet ANOTHER company that uses this poor excuse. You don't have to use the gamepad if you don't want to, make it off-screen play compatible then. Or even just leave the screen black and make it compatible with the pro controller; the gamepad isn't some gimmick that you absolutely NEED to take full advantage of. So no, it wouldn't require much more than a basic port and you've certainly lost sales because of it.

This essentially boils down to "we're lazy and we see Nintendo as gimmicky and therefore don't care" which is utter crap and they need to be called out on it.

So they don't want to port the game simply because they would feel pressured to do something with the interface? No "The hardware is different and unnatural!" or "The publisher thinks it wouldn't sell!" or "We're too far into development to retro-fit support for another console!"? I'm sure most Wii U owners would be happy just to have a version of the game to play, let alone have their version contain some small extras.

Seeing that everything I heard about this game was that it was a piece of horrible misogynistic trash where you, "the male", are destined to guide and protect Lara Croft so she doesn't get raped, I think we, and Nintendo, dodged a bullet here.

I would love to see Tomb Raider on the WiiU and I rightly don't care if they 'innovate' or not. Then again seeing the direction the franchise is headed it's not looking good. Saying that, I wouldn't miss this game either. Without having this one though, they won't buy me over with sequels. Maybe they will redo this one for the WiiU at a later date as a 'special edition'.

This ain't no real TR game anyway. Just another style over substance 3rd person shooter. But on the other hand, the Wii U doesn't have any tps currently & I'm sure a few people out there wouldve appreciated it.

The point of the GamePad, in my opinion, is that it allows for new crazy things but also works as a regular controller. A big improvement over Wii. It's a shame when developers don't see it that way, though.

You know, I'll miss this game, and I half think that's a bullcrap excuse, but I have to respect what he said. He takes development quite seriously it seems, and doesn't want to bring lazy ports to the system (Hello there Capcom/Nicalis).

I do think he should not make that excuse and instead make a few simple changes to take advantage of the gamepad, but at the very least, he isn't being a jerk about it with the "Wii U is a toy" bullcrap we've all heard too much.

I do wish everyone would make a Wii U port for this year's games but the reality is that a port takes a great deal of time and effort and a GOOD port takes much more of the same. The gamble on whether to make this for Wii U to maybe make money on it was made long before today.

Others that took the risk hopefully find a good return. That's what we as consumers need.

@Boxmonkey not all wii u consoles come with the pro controller,its a mistake on nintendos behalf, if they would have put a pro controller in every wii u box, developers who r lazy could have just done a straight port, but since they didnt this is the excuse they are all using, even though nothing stops them from using just the sticks an buttons on the gamepad with no touch controls, but again they are lazy an iam fed up of all the lazy devs this generation! i own an game on all platforms but my nintendo only friends are left out, while i get to buy crysis 3, bioshock infinite, an dead space 3, an far cry 3 from last year, its appaling, an yet again mainstream 3rd party support is lackluster on a nintendo console! things need to change an quick!

I'm getting really sick of this. Just because the feature is there doesn't mean you have to use it. People with this frame of mind is the reason we had so many Wii games with unnecessary waggle controls. Sometimes we just want to play a game, buddy. In fact, the Wii U is more fit to play "normal" games than the Wii was. Item management is all we really need.

Nintendo did say there would ultimately be a Nintendo Direct focuses on third party titles for the Wii U. They have announcements to make, but Nintendo wants to make them in their own way and at their own time. Expect developers to remain tight-lipped until Nintendo releases whatever news they're sitting on. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint. As for Tomb Raider not being on the Wii U, as has been said before, can't win them all.

I'm still enjoying last gen Tomb Raider Anniversary so even if this new crap doesn't make to Wii U, at least I still had the kickass Lara Croft I know and love. The new Lara Croft doesn't interest me at all either.

I don't know why they just don't say "It's not in the budget. Game budgets are planned at the initial stages of development, and we didn't have knowledge of the Wii U hardware at the time, thus couldn't budget for a port for it."

I'm sorry folks but until every single Wii U owner buys a Pro Controller, then mentioning it's existence is not a good enough counter-argument. At least the developer is not trying to palm us off with a poor, sloppy port.

@Gamesake: I dont know I hated the Tomb Raider series but seeing the direction this one is going I have got to say its on the top of my list of games that I want to play this year. Perhaps change is a good thing?

There is a different looking chick everytime with this series... Judging by the annoyed look on her face you can tell she was looking forward to being on the WiiU then they said NO!
How many Lara Croft's are there exactly?
These are my top picks

Another bone-headed Western developer that thinks that just because the Wii U has a touchscreen gamepad, any game they must develop for it has to be a gimmicky casual game.

Just like Gearbox saying they won't release Borderlands 2 on the Wii U because they are too thick to think up a unique way to use the gamepad (and too thick to realise that having a map and inventory on the gamepad would be adequate enough, and maybe Nintendo Wii U owners would like to play a game that doesn't involve scribbling on a touch pad or shaking a gyro - not to mention, the Wii U has a classic control that is for all intents and purposes, an Xbox 360 controller).

So we aren't going to see this ported to the Wii U - fine. I can live with that, but his words suggest when we do see a game from them, it can only be a gimmicky crapfest, because apparently, they are unable to build a game up for the Wii U that doesn't utilise EVERY feature of the gamepad.

Now I know I could have bought a PS3 or X360, if I wanted to play Tomb Raider (2013) or Borderlands 2 (though I'll be getting that on the PC eventually), this can't bode well for future support from these studios.

There is also the chance that really they just didn't know the WU limitations, when they were making these, like @Hardy83 mentioned. Of course, the devs might also have thought not very highly of the WU, even if they had knowledge of it's tech limitations/capabilities.

The real reason this game isn't coming to Wii U: Samus is jealous of all the attention Lara has been getting from male gamers so she bribed the developers to not let it come to the Wii U. That way she can have all the male Nintendo gamers to herself. Samus did the same to Joanna Dark by convincing Microsoft to buy Rareware from Nintendo.

The developers did nothing but complain about the Wii and its lack of power and used that as their main excuse for not making "quality games" so Nintendo gave them a powerful machine that would handle the games with no problems, now they all complain that they don't want to put stuff on it because of its unique controls!? I love how they try to pander to Nintendo fans saying how they are such huge fans while CONSTANTLY coming up with excuses for all of their new games not coming to a new Nintendo console. I also love how quickly these third party companies cannibalize their successful Nintendo exclusives when their games fail on 360 and PS3. Resident Evil 6 bombs and Revelations gets announced within months. 007 Blood Stone bombs and Goldeneye 007: Reloaded comes out a year later. I commend Nintendo for trying to work with third party's but maybe they shouldn't try so hard since the third party's don't seem to care either way. I think their current focus on big Japanese titles and welcoming the indie crowd to the Wii U with open arms is great and I will continue to support them in every way I can.

The problem is that Nintendo released the console so late that not many are not willing to make an effort to put it on the Wii U. Nintendo blew it by releasing the Wii U too late. They missed out on a lot of great games and will continue to do so. Tomb Raider, Dark Souls 2 and Bioshock Infinite just to name a few.

@Noend: The problem is not everyone who has a Wii U has the Pro controller, after all it wasnt included in either of the sets unlike the gamepad. You cant make a game to just utilize one type of controller especially if you have to buy that controller separately.

It's odd since the past Tomb Raiders have graced Nintendo platforms, even GameCube. I am very cautiously optimistic that there will be a Wii U Tomb Raider that does take advantage of the GamePad (using it to store your survival gear perhaps)?

While it does sound like an ugly cop-out, it's the exact same excuse that the Borderlands team used afterall, I do like the idea of a game built with GamePad play in mind as opposed to cheap gimmicks. I want the creative experience that games like Nintendo Land and ZombiU offer. There aren't enough of those yet.

If I'm not mistaken wasn't the main complaint about third-party DS games that the touch controls were tacked-on and developers just through a map or something on the other screen? But now when a developer says they don't want to do that people get mad and call it a cop-out, because they're too lazy to take the easy way out?

Talk about being fickle, never mind that the install base is small, not everyone wii have a CCP, and most of these games were likely in development way before they got hold of a Wii U dev kit.

Never liked tomb raider anyway. That's what I've been worried about though - we've been brought up to date technology wise and were still not getting any proper third party support. Where's the Dead Space 3s or BioShock Infinites??

can you please sign this guys and girls. I will be sending it to SQUARE ENIX when I have a good few signatures. I no it probably wont be any help but I just want to let them know that they are passing up a good opportunity. please forward on this petition to your friends too!!!

Sucks that it isn't coming to Wii U but I won't be getting it for my PS3. I have wasted too much money on reboots for this series that haven't fixed anything. Hot babe and treasure hunting. How they keep messing up that winning combo so bad is beyond me.

Sigh Why does every developer think they need to add a gimmick for the WiiU. A Straight port would be fine. Just be honest, the WiiU doesn't have a large enough install base to make a port worth doing.

What I find disturbing is that the Wii U Pro Controller was made for just this situation. So that older games not made specifically for the Wii U could be ported to the system and control comfortably. I fear this just shows that although developers have good intentions in not porting a game without Gamepad support to the Wii U, they are also not showing interest in porting some of the hottest games to Wii U AT ALL.

Get used to it, if you haven't already: AAA third-party titles are, by and large, not coming to Wii U. The excuses are all B.S. Developers are NOT lazy, nor are they "unable to come up with a good use of the GamePad"; the truth is, porting software to the Wii U platform takes time and money, and they are not confident that making that investment of time and money for a Wii U port will result in a profit. Game publishers aren't charities; they make business decisions to appease shareholders and / or ownership groups. So far, the early sales figures are, for whatever reason, indicative to publishers that porting a title to Wii U is a risky move that will probably not turn additional profit.

I am much more optimistic about Wii U's future after last week's Nintendo Direct than I was two weeks ago; but for now, I'd say we should all get used to the Wii U being something like the Wii before it: a "boutique" system with great exclusives and can't-miss first-party titles, but which will not see ports of your Tomb Raiders, Grand Theft Autos, Borderlands, Sleeping Dogs, Minecrafts, Elder Scrolls / Skyrims, etc. etc. etc. If you must have those games, your choices are PC, PlayStation 3/4 or Xbox 360 / 720.

If every developer is going to dismiss The Wii U as too costly, then it will sink. I couldn't care less about Tomb Raider personally, but the more people jump on board, the better.

Nintendo have to entice more third-party developers to actually work on the Wii U - otherwise it's no different from the Wii, apart from the price, really. Don't get me wrong, having GTA or whatever isn't exactly make-or-break, but when Sony and Microsoft's new consoles are unveiled, the gap will become even more pronounced.

Anyway, I don't get this decision, they put Underworld and I believe Anniversary as well on the Wii, granted neither game pushed the hardware capabilities of the HD systems like this one seems to but there's no question the Wii U could run it just fine. Maybe we won't see it right away but it would be kind dumb to leave out any system, even if it doesn't release until 6 months later it'd be worth it to port the game over.

Lightning Returns would make sense, it's been a long time since a main game in the series was on a Nintendo console and eventhough the series isn't what it used to be it's still very popular and I don't think there's any question the Nintendo fanbase would be happy to welcome it back. How they feel after playing the game would be anyone's guess, the FF XIII games don't even come close to representing the best of what JRPGs can be.

@dragon_rider@ngamer155 If you dont have anyhting nice or good to say about it dont say anyhting at all.I've really been looking forward to the new tomb raider, already beat Anniversary, Legend, and Underworld.

Underworld (the latest Tomb Raider?) was horrible. I was stuck in the game for several times, because of errors. I couldnt jump over a gap. Had to play the entire game from start twice, to see a bridge lying there.

I remember the Wii ports of Tomb Raider Anniversary and Tomb Raider Underworld being pretty dismal, but I think that had a lot to do with having to use unconventional controls. Had those ports been compatible with the GameCube controllers and/or Classic Controllers, I think they would have done much better.

Whoes keeping score how many times nintendo has been ignored like they have the cooties sad its actually a superb AAA game some say its better than uncharted if u only own this thing u night want to pick up another console and put the wiiu in the closet for a year untill that zelda remake is released